[mee]

You made this shot look very natural, but man do those eyes pop now! I think it's processing like this that make some people feel like their gear is inadequate, when really it's just good, almost invisible processing that brings out the best in a shot.

Yes, most people's gear is really quite enough if you don't mind processing in post.. most of my shots directly from the camera look awful.. isn't until I get them in post that they really begin to live.

I have to confess though that I cheated.. entirely. I used Google Nik Effects (usable in Lightroom) and a bit of Unsharp Mask in Photoshop Elements.

The Nik Effect algorithms are really very good and the point controls are basically 'smart' masks behind the scenes.. everything could be done in PSE likely but it would take A LOT more elbow grease. Actually, most of this could be done in LR too with a bit of creativity.

Though I show this to point out that we have a lot of easily accessible software for processing that is incredibly powerful -- don't limit yourself to just one product unless that product does it ALL. For the cost of a shiny, new lens, one could get the entire suite of software and (with some training/trial+error) really take their images to another level. LR is a wonderful starting point though!